4.0.b. SWCSR 09-08-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Charter ( ommuNicAT , c, „, s September 6, 2016 Mayor Graunke &Members of the Delano City Council City of Delano 234 2nd Street North P.O. Box 108 Delano, MN 55328 Re: Frontier Communications - Cable Application Dear Mayor Graunke & Members of the City Council: Thank you for giving Charter Communications ("Charter")the opportunity to comment on the application("Application") submitted by Frontier Communications ("Frontier")to provide cable television service in the City of Delano ("City"). We respectfully submit these comments for your consideration at the September 6 public hearing and look forward to reviewing and commenting on the proposed franchise ordinance once that is available. • Charter respectfully recommends that the Council find the Application legally deficient and invite Frontier to resubmit an application that complies with applicable law. Frontier's Application fails to provide the information required by Minnesota law to demonstrate its legal, financial and technical qualifications. • The City must honor the competitive equity provisions in Minnesota law and the Franchise agreement between Charter and the City ("Charter Franchise"). As summarized herein, Frontier also has put the City in an untenable position by requesting approval of franchise terms which violate the competitive equity provisions in Minnesota law and the Charter Franchise. Specifically, Frontier's Application asks the City to violate state law and Charter's Franchise by granting a franchise to Frontier that is more favorable and less burdensome than Charter's Franchise. In doing so,the Frontier Application also invites the City to undermine any real opportunity for competition by sanctioning cherry-picking and undercutting its stated public policy of equality. The City should decline this invitation. Charter does not object to the City issuing a franchise to another competitor in the market and acknowledges that franchises in Minnesota and Delano must be non-exclusive. We compete with Frontier and other wireline video providers in Minnesota and across the country. Charter's only concern is that municipalities granting competitive franchises do so on level terms. Potential competitors seeking a franchise from the City must comply with Minnesota law. And the City must honor the competitive equity requirements of the current Charter Franchise and Minnesota law. If the City were to grant Frontier a franchise based on the Application, it would 1